It was the one thing she’d asked him not to do. Well, that and treat her less than she was.
“I knew we had chemistry, and you wouldn’t have given us a chance if you’d known,” he said quickly. “Nina, baby, you hit me like lightning, and I know you felt the same way. The job didn’t matter.”
“It mattered to me.” She needed to get out of here. She knew it wasn’t professional, but she had to get away from him, had to think her way through this.
It was happening again. She was trading her job, her reputation, for some good sex and a modicum of affection.
She wasn’t ever going to learn.
“Ian, I’m going to do some prep work and write up a report of my observations of our suspects. Should I do that while I’m watching the client or were you and Alex serious about staying here?” She didn’t even look JT’s way.
“I think that’s an excellent idea. We should all get some sleep. I’ll let Michael know to be on standby,” Ian replied. “We’ll stay here but you have to stay here, too. I’d love to get you another room or let you go to the office, but we don’t know who’s watching.”
She wanted to be away from JT, wanted some time alone to mourn what had just happened, but she understood what Ian was saying.
She almost prayed they ended up taking Michael with them. If they managed to convince JT to go through with the mission, she would have to hold hands with him and look like they were in love.
It would be torture.
“I’ll take the smaller bedroom.” At least they were in a ridiculously large suite and she had options.
“You can have the master,” JT replied.
“Thank you.” She turned away because she wasn’t about to argue.
* * * *
JT stared out over the lights of Dallas and tried to find any beauty at all in them. It was three in the morning and he hadn’t found a second of peace since that moment when he’d realized someone was trying to kill him and that person might get Nina instead. It was hard to believe he’d stood in this same spot mere days before and thought it was the most beautiful place in the world. But then Nina had been here with him.
“I would tell you to move away from the exposed window anyone could snipe you from, but I suspect you wouldn’t hate that at this point,” a familiar voice said.
He wished the voice wasn’t so familiar but was at least relieved it wasn’t Tag. He turned from the floor-to-ceiling windows with a sigh and took in Alex McKay, who was down to his slacks, undershirt, and socks. The sight of McKay’s gun in a shoulder holster reminded him why McKay was here, and it wasn’t simply to avoid stinky diapers. “Sorry. I’ll keep away from the window, though I don’t see how anyone could get me this high.”
McKay glanced out. “I’ve got four perches I could use, and then there are always helicopters, though those will give you a bit of a warning. You would be surprised how many people don’t take a good warning though.”
“Yeah, I got that.” He crossed to the bar and poured himself a Scotch. It was his first since Nina had looked at him with wounded eyes. He’d forced himself to stay away from it because he’d needed to think. He was tired of thinking. Thinking got him nowhere. Thinking had left him with nowhere to sleep. “Tag kick you out of bed?”
McKay chuckled and sat down at the bar. “His snoring sure did. Let me tell you I do not miss having to share a room with the big bastard. When we first started the company years ago we did it on a shoestring budget and had to share hotel rooms, and they did not always have two beds. The funny thing is he’s completely silent when we’re on surveillance. I swear that man can sleep with his eyes open and not make a sound. But when he’s comfortable, he can scare off an elephant. I don’t know how Charlie does it.”
“It’s good that he’s so comfortable. I could have been comfortable if he’d kept his mouth shut.” Nina hadn’t given up on him until Tag had outed his tiny omission of truth.
Alex slid him a sidelong glance. “I doubt that. I don’t know what conversation you were having last night, but it was not going well.”
“I could have saved it. I could have made her understand, but Tag had to open his mouth. I tell you I was disappointed. I kind of thought we were friendly. I didn’t expect he would out me like that to Nina.” It had bugged him all night. She never had to know how they’d met. It didn’t change anything.
Alex chuckled and poured himself a couple of fingers of the excellent Scotch the hotel stocked for the Malones. “Oh, that didn’t surprise me at all. Look, Ian’s got a code and he’s got a bunch of circles with which he applies that code. And he would blow a whole lot of that code up if he thinks a guy is fucking a woman over.”
Then Tag didn’t know him at all. “I am not trying to hurt Nina. I am trying to keep her safe.”
“You started the relationship by lying to her. That was always going to come out. You’ve been lucky so far. I assure you at some point Genny would have asked Nina about you and it would have come out. But you can’t expect Ian to pick you in this fight. She’s his employee, and he takes that seriously. Also, I know Ian seems like he’s all about protecting the women, but half the time he’s got a woman watching his back. He’s kind of surrounded himself with badass women, and he doesn’t like it when they get marginalized.”
What the hell was Alex talking about?
